Fragments towards an aesthetics of frailty

behind the scenes

[Guardian] Twenty-two years after his death, and over 40 years after his ascendancy as America’s most famous Pop artist, Warhol remains an influential figure on the making and selling of art. As his most obvious heir, Damien Hirst, puts it, “Warhol really brought money into the equation. He made it acceptable for artists to think about money. In the world we live in today, money is a big issue. It’s as big as love, maybe even bigger.”

In a culture in thrall to advertising, marketing and celebrity, Warhol made art that mirrored that hyper-real world of commodification even as it critiqued it. His definition of the word artist was “someone who produces things that people don’t need to have”. He called his studio the Factory and his means of production defined the ultra-capitalist creed by which many successful younger artists now live. “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art,” he wrote.

To see how art and money co-exist at the highest level, you need to attend an international art fair, or better still, a Sotheby’s auction. If you want to dig deeper, though, to find out how much the creative process has altered to accommodate the market, the artist’s studio is still the best place to visit.